The Higher Education Review

In a recent study by World Economic Forum reports that future jobs will give more importance to applicants with active learning, creativity, critical thinking and analysis, complex problem-solving, leadership, emotional intelligence, and reasoning soft skills. Measuring equivalent technical talents on the basis of soft skills has become the trend for today's fast-changing corporate world Involving training in multiple soft skill divisions, Laetus Education started its journey in 2010 in Bengaluru, Karnataka "Our mission is to provide our customers with the most advanced language learning technology available to help further our business communities and provide the tools for people to build a greater quality of life," said Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director of Laetus Education. 'The demand for proficient spoken English skills is growing and we intend to lead the market in education training.'

Native Accent is a web-based software program developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute and is used for testing and improvement of English speaking and listening skills for personnel at multinational corporations and students at academic institutions. Using personalized, interactive and intuitive exercises, Native Accent provides instruction and practice needed to rapidly improve pronunciation, grammar, and fluency - the cornerstones of comprehensibility.

Native Accent's pinpointing technologies identify the exact error that provides immediate text, audio and graphics prompt to inform the student about what exactly what they must do to improve their English speaking skills. Native Accent also dramatically reduces learning time by up to 50% through an Intelligent Tutor that prioritizes pronunciation training exercises based on each user's individual needs factoring in gender, English proficiency and the students 'mother-tongue' influence.

"Native Accent has helped students consistently to double their English-speaking proficiency globally, Our partnership with Laetus Education is indicative of a growing global demand for proficient English speaking and listening skills in schools, universities and industries," said

Angela Kennedy, President & CEO of Carnegie Speech. 'Improved English skills can have a significant impact on local communities and economies by unlocking more opportunities for skilled workers.'

"Native Accent is a web-based software program developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute and is used for testing and improvement of English speaking and listening skills"

A global leader in the development of spoken language training software, Carnegie Speech prepares enterprises and individuals to speak and understand new languages through personalized, immediate and pinpointed language analysis and instruction. Incorporating the linguistic expertise and technical innovations developed through decades of research at Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Speech maximizes the effectiveness of spoken language instruction while minimizing training time and expense. From spoken language training to facilitate commerce and enhance education, to mission-critical communications to improve safety and security, Carnegie Speech products are used by Business, Aviation, Government, Education and Health Care enterprises that depend on effective spoken language communications. Carnegie Speech is based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Every training module has 25 hours of training for every student. Apart from this, we have study materials prepared by noted academicians. There are 20 training modules. What trainers do is, they deliver classroom training on these modules and then students practice the Native Accent Software in the Laetus English language lab. We teach them how to do presentations and speak in group discussions. There is an interactive learning approach, based on which when students enter the classroom, they are asked to speak in English about what they're doing.

"We've been working to improve the English proficiency of students of class 6 to 9 from Tamil Nadu Government Schools. Students were having trouble explaining how they come to school, what is their favorite food, hobby, which their best friend is. After a period of 10 hours of training, step by step reports were prepared for each and every student. At the end of the training, the same student was able to speak English fluently and in a diverse manner. Initially, students were struggling to even speak a few correct words in English, however now they are able to answer all the questions in complete English

sentences. That is the level of improvement that happened because of the training they received", explained Laetus Training Manager, Hari Rao.

Laetus Education also offers a CATs program consisting of seven CEFR levels A0 to C2. CATs have been developed by the Cambridge Malaysian Educational Development Trust and Language Technologies Institute (LTI) of Carnegie Mellon University. Unique multi-level English language learning and testing program. The program is inclusive, achievable, world-class and affordable. It is a comprehensive English language practice and testing program for the 21st century. The classroom-based system served out of the cloud that provides student training and reporting along with class-level reporting for teachers and administrators. Being a high-quality, technology-driven English language training tool, CATs certainly will help all the students get the required English competency. The CATs system is a suite of innovative, computer-based English language assessment, preparation and practice products. CATs test all four language skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. CATs Higher has 3 levels, from top of B1 to a low C1, with over 40 hours of study time provided per level. CATs Higher is designed for learners in Higher Education or for those who are starting out in their careers. The core materials for CATs Higher were developed by Cambridge University Language Centre; they focus on authentic language and situations to develop real-world language skills. There is a significant amount of video footage that is used together with reading-based lessons to build towards communicative tasks. Extensive grammar support and additional practice are provided together with a Glossary with audio, example sentences and record/compare functionality.

Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director
Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy is a senior-level executive with 38 years of experience in management, business leadership delivering impressive bottom-line impact. He has served for over 23 years as a member of the Senior Management team and carries expertise in the fields of Profit Centre Operations, Business Development, Human Resource Development, Organization Development, P&L Management, Strategy Formulation, Franchisee Development, Strategic Alliances & Partnerships, Policies and Procedures and Change Management.